Andrew MacMahon

A few years ago my best friend Katie invited me to go to Vegas to see my favorite band, The Fray, play live. I had seen them once before, but they were my favorite band. And, I hadn't taken a vacation in years, so I agreed and we made plans.

Well, The Fray was headlining with Jack's Mannequin who I had heard a time or two but couldn't name any of their songs, let alone who was in the group. I was really lucky, though, because Katie LOVED them and it was a very educational week for me. I heard all of their music and fell in love with so many of their songs. I bought all of their music as well as all of Something Corporate's music because Andrew MacMahon is the genius behind both of them.

Katie also introduced me to Andrew's documentary Dear Jack which is his journey through cancer. It's on Netflix. There is some language, but over all, I think everyone should watch it. It is very raw and real. It is a front row seat of Leukemia. And it is powerful.

So, I became obsessed with everything Jack's Mannequin. I picked up one of their t-shirts at the show in Vegas and I wore it out. I still have the shirt somewhere in my room, but it's sooooo thin now, I can't wear it anymore. But I don't want to get rid of it. I LOVE that shirt. LOVE it. It's so soft and well worn, I just can't part with it. I'll figure out something to do with it, right? Right.
Any way, if you want to check out my introduction to Jack's Mannequin, you can check it out HERE.

One thing I love about Andrew MacMahon is that he LOVES jumping on his piano. He's done it at every show I've been to. It's awesome. And what's more awesome is his incredible talent. Currently he is playing under the name Andrew MacMahon in the Wilderness. He was actually just in my area and I couldn't go the night he was playing her and I nearly died to death. But it was okay....or it will be.

Here is his current top song:

I think the thing I love about this particular video for the song is that it focuses on his family, particularly, his daughter Cecelia for whom he wrote the song. There are three lines that I absolutely adore from the chorus and they are:

For all the things my eyes have seen the best, by far, is you.

For all the places I have been, I'm nowhere without you.

For all the things my hands have held the best, by far, is you.

I have stitched all three of those and framed them for people. Two of them for a dear friend who got married. I couldn't think of a better sentiment than those first two lines quoted above. And the last line I gave to a friend who was having a baby. Because Andrew has phrased them so perfectly. I love his perception on life. I really want to meet him one day. I have the utmost respect for him.

Also, have you heard that new Lindsey Sterling song for Pete's Dragon? Have you wondered who that guy is singing on the track?! It's ANDREW McMAHON!!!! And I love it. GO FIND IT, if you haven't already.

As I've been relistening to his music for this blog post, I am reminded how much his music has affected my life, my writing, my world. We need more artists like him in the world. And, in case you are new to his music, let me give you a list of songs you need to go listen to RIGHT NOW!!

Dark Blue
Swim
Cecelia and the Satellite
The Resolution
MFEO Pt. 1 - Made for Each Other / Pt. 2 - You Can Breathe
High Dive
All Our Lives
Hostage
The Mixed Tape
Amelia Jean
Rescued
Amy, I

And, once you've listened to all of those, you'll need the rest of his music and you'll be a fan. And I'll be happy. Because I know you're all out to make sure I'm happy. Haha.

But seriously, make sure and check out his music HERE and his website HERE.

And so because whenever I'm down I listen to Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, and now Andrew MacMahon in the Wilderness, I made double chocolate cookies. They are so so delicious. I LOVE them.


Double Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Averiecooks.com (she calls them Sofbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies)


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 ounces (1/4 cup) brick-style cream cheese (get the brick, not the whipped or spreadable kind.)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
12 ounces (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips


Okay, so start by pre heating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. creaming together the cream cheese, butter, sugars, egg and vanilla together for about 4 or 5 minutes. This is important. Don't just mix it a little bit and call it good.

Scrape the bowl and make sure everything is well mixed and then add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix this until just combined. Then mix in the chocolate chips and make sure that everything is mixed in super good so that you can back them!!

Averie differs from my recommendations here, so if you want to try her cookies, you'll need to follow the link above. I tried her way first and didn't like them as much. Once everything is combined, I used my regular cookie scoop, patted them down so they were a little flat on top and just put them on the tray and threw them in the oven. I baked mine for about 10 minutes and then pulled them out, let them cool just a bit and then transferred them to a cooling rack. This method gave me about 24 cookies. And they are delightful. 

Sam Worthington

Once upon a time I started writing a book. The book was called Changing Tyde. Technically, I'm still writing it. But that's neither here nor there. 

Now, when I write a story, especially one I've been working in as long as Changing  Tyde, I tend to cast the roles as if it were a movie because I see all of my stories as movies in my head. The main character in Changing Tyde is a very attractive actor named Jason Tyde (hence the title.... See what I did there?) so, I had thought about a number of actors that I thought would do a good job, but no one was really sticking out to me until I watched Terminator Salvation. Odd, I know, and I was most of the way through the movie when there was this scene and Sam Worthington's character is looking directly at the camera and I paused the movie and walked up to my TV and just thought 'Oh my gosh. There's Jason Tyde. Right there. He's him.' no joke, that'd what happened. So, of course I had to go look him up. And then watch everything he's ever been in. because that's how  I roll. 

So. Sam Worthington. He is 5'10" born in the UK, but raised in Australia. He has dark hair and blue eyes, which I am a total sucker for. I see a guy with dark and blue eyes and almost swoon every time. I wish that was a joke, but it's not. 

He was the first actor to claim the #1 spot on my top 5. What is my tip 5, you ask? Well, its basically just my top 5 favorite actors. Over the years I added some rules to it that I can't explain. Like, no one in my top 5 can be married because I think that's disrespectful. I don't know why. So, Sam held the #1 spot for years until I found out who Zachary Levi was. No joke. Of he's not married, because I honestly don't know, but if he's not, he's got the #4 spot.

I think he will always be who I think of when I am writing Changing Tyde. He has also appeared in a lot of action movies such as Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, Avatar, Man on a Ledge, and of course, Terminator Salvation. I feel like he's rather under rated, but I love his movies. 

He's very good at beating people up and being awesome and I highly recommend giving some of those movies a watch. Because I know most of you haven't seen them all. You could even play a drinking game with Man on a Ledge. Everyone takes a shot whenever they say "man on a ledge". Haha. I don't drink alcohol, so I'd have to come up with something else, but you get the point. 

You can check out his IMDB credits here. 

He's got some new stuff coming out that I will definitely be seeing. And not just because he's in it... Probably... 

And so, on to our delicious dessert for Sam's fantastic birthday. He's 40 today, btw. In case you were curious. But yeah, so I made these AMAZING Brownie Chocolate Chip Thumbprint cookies. I found the recipe on Chelsea's Messy Apron blog. And I'm definitely going to suggest you go check out the recipe HERE because she's AMAZING and has a very fun post about them. And I know that it's awful to just post these pictures and not just put the recipe below like I always do, but seriously, peeps. Just go the Chelsea's blog. You'll thank me. 

Kristen Bell

Before Zootopia. Before FROZEN. Before When In Rome. Before she was Gossip Girl. Before You Again. Before she narrated an erotic audiobook on iZombie (it wasn't the whole book, or anything, but it was pretty funny. Because iZombie is funny). Before Heroes AND before she was Sarah Marshall, Kristen Bell was...VERONICA MARS. One of my absolute favorite shows!

Okay, but let's go back. She is such a talented actress, and I have loved so many of her roles. She is so amazing. She was Anna in Frozen, so you've heard her sing. She's the voice of Gossip Girl if you've ever watched that show, or even watched the very beginning or end of any episode. She played a super sleuth on Veronica Mars which is what I first saw her in. She's been in so many movies. You Again is so funny. When In Rome is one of my absolute favorites of both her and Josh Duhamel. If you haven't watched it, you definitely need to see it! It's so funny! And her real life husband, Dax Shepherd is in it as well. He is also hilarious.

About a year ago, I took a class in college about the Rhetoric of Superheroes. I can't remember the exact title, but I took it because A. I love Superheroes and 2. It was being taught by my favorite teacher, Dr. Pepper (not a joke, that is his name.) For my final project for this class, I wrote a full length Superhero movie titled Iridium. You can read an excerpt of it HERE. But, the entire time I wrote it, I just thought how great Kristen Bell would be as the villian, called Killowat. She can control electricity and has a bad habit of killing people. There's a huge fight on a college campus at the end as our girl Iridium fights her. I really want Anna Kendrick to be Iridium. Who wouldn't want to see a superhero fight go down between Kristen Bell and Anna Kendrick?! I think it would be EPIC. Let's hope that this happens. Like, soon.

Speaking of her family, she is married to Dax Shepherd, as I just mentioned, and has two little girls. I think they are the most adorable family. For her 31st birthday, Dax had a sloth come to their house. She LOVES sloths. Like, LOVES them. Here's the video of her talking to Ellen DeGeneres about it:





I have seen that video a few times and I laugh so hard every single time. So great. You can see her entire filmography HERE on iMDB.

In honor of her birthday, I made homemade ice cream and chocolate chip cookie bowls!! I used the same recipe for the chocolate chip cookie bowls as I did for the cookies I made for Chris Evans' birthday that can be found HERE.

For the ice cream, I just made a simple Vanilla Custard that I found on Pinterest because I have an unhealthy addiction that I'm not ashamed of...maybe I should be. Haha. HERE is a link to the original recipe. She answers SO MANY questions and has a billion ideas of other ways to use this, so I HIGHLY recommend checking out the original blog post at the above link!!

I've tweaked it a bit because I do that, but that is where it originally came from!! Also, I did use an ice cream maker to make this. If you don't have one but still want homemade ice cream, search on Pinterest! They've got, like, a BILLION recipes for it!!

Vanilla Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk (I mean, you can use half and half or a lower fat content milk, BUT THIS IS ICE CREAM. Go big or go home, you know?)
1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set them aside. They will look like a delicious lemon treat, but it's not. Don't eat it. It will taste gross at this stage.

Simmer the milk in a saucepan. JUST the milk. DO NOT add the heavy cream yet. Take it off the heat just as it heats up and little bubbles form on the edges. DO NOT let it boil. (These are all mistakes I have made previously! haha.) Remove from heat and gradually add the milk to the egg yolks and sugar. It is important to take your time with this step. Otherwise you get scrambled egg yolks which would be gross in your ice cream.

Once the milk and yolk mixture is incorporated, add it back to the pan and cook it on a low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon with a thin film. You want this to reach 165-180 degrees Fahrenheit. This will take about 10ish minutes. Once it hits that temprature, you're going to remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. After it's cooled, throw it in the fridge for 4-24 hours. The longer you let it sit, the creamier your ice cream is.

After you've let it sit, you're ready to make the ice cream!!! YAY!!!! Now add the heavy cream and vanilla to the custard base, and then add it to your ice cream maker! Each ice cream maker is different, so follow the instructions for yours! After it gets all churned up, BOOM. You have AMAZING ice cream. It's the best. And soooo good. Enjoy!!

Chris Evans

Hey everyone! Welcome to a new venture!! So, in case you are new and haven't visited my previous blogs or have ever met me in real life, I should explain. I am a HUGE pop culture nerd especially when it comes to movies and TV Shows. And even more specifically with the comic book genre. For the last three years I have posted on specific celebrity birthdays what shows of theirs I would be watching and what treat I would be making to celebrate the day. Often these lists would be longer than the actual hours in the day, but mostly it was to recall the amazing shows I already love to watch.

That said, I am starting with one of my favorite actors. Chris Evans is from Boston (a place I'd LOVE to visit!) and I actually met him last September. I have been a huge fan since around 2003 when I watched Perfect Score and then I loved him as Johnny Storm in the original Fantastic Four movies. And then he was in a bunch of other movies that I have seen, but I'm not entirely sure 80% of my friends have even heard of. To be honest, I own copies of most of them. (Can we talk about the ridiculous ending of Push?! I mean, I know you wanted to do a sequel, but c'mon. Give the audience at least a little bit of closure!!)

And then, he became Captain America and now you all know who he is. I was going to make something very Captain America-esq like Apple Pie, but then I thought that I wanted a classic. Because Chris Evans is a classic. SO, I give you the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie. Mmmmmmmm. You know you want some. Just look. And, without further ado, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup Shortening
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla

Mix until well combined and then add:

1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda

Mix well and then add:

2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

And, in case you need a list of ALL the Chris Evans movies you can watch today, here you go:

Before We Go

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Captain America: Civil War (I'm totally #teamcap!!)

The Avengers

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Push

Snowpiercer

What's Your Number

The Nanny Diaries

Cellular

The Perfect Score